Ryan Gosling’s Long-Forgotten Music Career + Rock Album Is The Ultimate #TBT

Ryan Gosling is a lot of things. One of the sexiest men alive, a talented actor, former Mousekateer, and the lesserbetter other half of Eva Mendes. You may not know that Drive star is also a rockstar. Yes, you read that correctly, Ryan Gosling is in a band. As if you couldn’t think of enough reasons to off Eva Mendes, Ryan Gosling is also 1/2 of the rock duo Dead Man’s Bones with his friend Zach Shields.

Let’s take it back to where it all began. The year is 2005 and Gosling was just coming off of his blockbuster success in The Notebook. The pair became pals after being introduced by their girlfriends and talking about ghosts and monsters at Disneyland—just like most male friendships, TBH. Gosling is a little bit ~edgy~, so they decided to create music and a staged a rock-horror production. Tragically it never developed a Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque following, and Dead Man’s Bones released a more conventional debut.

As far as gimmicks are concerned, Dead Man’s Bones has plenty. The biggest of which was the fact that they sang exclusively with the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir (formed by RHCP’s Flea). When they were signed to ANTI Records, it was announced that the pair played all the instruments themselves. You can credit Gosling with vocals, piano, guitar, bass guitar, while Shields also tackled percussion and drums. They also refused to use a click-track (like a metronome) or to record more than three takes for a song. Then there’s the fact that Gosling’s stage name was Baby Goose.

Alright, alright, let’s actually listen to some of this and decide if Gosling’s acting chops match his music ones (he wasalmost a Backstreet Boy, you know). First there’s a live performance of “In The Room Where You Sleep” where Gosling croons about seeing something “sitting on your bed [and] touching your head.”

Where does that leave the band today? It’s hard to say. Nothing has been released by the group since a few music videos in 2010, and two of their older songs were featured in 2013 films. The group has never disbanded, so we’ll just sit over here compulsively checking their Twitter account waiting for a few more zombie-themed tracks. Basically, our conclusion is that Ryan Gosling can literally do anything and has next-to no flaws (unless he told Eva Mendes she could never wear sweatpants). So keep on keeping on, Baby Goose.